The present invention relates to an improved knife sharpener.
By way of background, sharpeners of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,170 are known. In sharpeners of this type, a knife blade is clamped between two clamp members and a sharpening stone is guided along the edge of a blade by a rod member secured to a sharpener stone holder and guided through an aperture in an upstanding guide. However, the prior device was subject to certain deficiencies. The first deficiency was that the hole through which the rod was guided was circular, thereby limiting the lateral sweep of the stone across the knife edge. Another deficiency was in the sharpener stone holder itself. Firstly, the manner in which the holder was held could result in cutting of the fingers because the fingers usually extended beyond the lower surface of the stone which contacted the knife edge. Secondly, the holder was held in an awkward position by only two fingers, thereby providing less control than if the holder was held with all of the fingers. Thirdly, the fingers produced more of a pushing motion of the stone toward the blade than a downward motion causing the stone to bear against the edge of the blade, which in turn was more likely to result in an uneven sharpening. It is with overcoming the foregoing deficiencies of prior art types of devices that the present invention is concerned.